Cirque de Hectica
by Spencer Quinn
Summary: Ladies and Jellybeans and Assorted Underlings! Everybody roll up and take your seats. And prepare for the greatest [if overly-insane] carnival in the entire universe! And guess who's running the circus? I own nothing but the OCs and the initial idea of this story. Enjoy. ;)
1. Introductions

**Introductions**

Guess who's back with a brand new story? Hello all, Spencer Quinn here again with a brand new story! At long last! WHOO!

**Crowd:** _YAAAAAAAAY!_ *round of applause*

Okay, down to business. This story is based off a school play my brother and sister were in a few years ago called 'Circus Splendida.' In this case, if it's with the Batman villains, it's gonna be hectic. Therefore it's 'Cirque de Hectica' [crappy name, I think, but still I've hit a writer's block for titles].

I had to get it out because it was annoying me for a long time now...five years at most.

This will bring forth all your favourite Batman villains, as they join together to make this insane circus a reality. Initially this fanfic was going to have musical numbers in it but I wasn't sure if most of you would like having that in it. If you do want musical numbers, however, please review and let me know.

Otherwise...

**Chronic:** Roll up, everybody, roll up! Get your tickets here, if ya please! Comin' to your town soon, ladies and jellybeans and assorted underlings!

**Nexus:** Take your seats and get ready for the greatest [if overly-chaotic] carnival in the entire universe!

**Synth:** Here we have acts such as: a human light and sound show, the world's only [existing] mind manipulator, a disappearing act (no catch, trust me), the very first plant tamer, probably the scariest ringmaster ever, a crocodile wrestler, acrobats and much much more!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing in this story except for the following: Chronic, Nexus, Synth, and the initial idea of 'Cirque de Hectica.'

Enjoy! ;)


	2. A circus in Arkham City?

**Just to start us off**—**how the villains found out about this event. And I'll put this in the first chapter. I'll start with Riddler and Chronic. Tell me how I'm doing so far and give me some ideas of what you expect from this circus [I have only five ideas already...I think. ^^;]. **

**Enjoy. ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: A circus...in Arkham City?**

**Riddler/Chronic:**

So, it was supposed to be a peaceful, if not chaotic, day in Arkham today. Edward Nigma and Sarah "Chronic" Axlewood were walking down the streets—Edward was listening to parts of Chronic's rant about the new rogue-in-the-business, who was currently hanging around former District Attourney, Harvey "Two Face" Dent.

"He's just creepy! Whatwith the feral hair, the loony smile, and the _freakin' _beady red eyes—honestly, don't you think it's a _little_ bit scary being glared at by a pair of beady red eyes? I'd think not!" Chronic shouted, waving around the Time Cane that she stole from the museum.

She was talkative, sure, but that was before Edward learned not to take her out on a heist on the museum...and get caught in the act by some kid [about the same age as Chronic] with red eyes, spiky brown hair and an insane personality, just to top that off. That obviously proves, if he's hanging around Two Face, that he's trying to stay on good terms with Harvey's dark side.

Now the Time Warper is even _more_ talkative than usual!

The heist, the arrest, the escape, the problem with this new rogue and Chronic's rant is about as far as they can get for excitement today.

However, when Chronic caught sight of a poster stuck to a lamppost, _that_ was when the day got interesting.

It was a poster for some kind of circus, coming to town soon. But it wasn't just any old circus. This is Arkham City, and in Arkham City, things are taken to the extreme...of course, no less in this circus in particular. Because if you scan through this "list of alleged 'circus freaks'", you would probably find...

"Wait, what?" Chronic muttered, scanning through the list again.

"What's your problem?" Edward asked the Time Warper, who continued to gape at the roster.

"Tell me, Riddler. Who's stupid enough to bring a circus into Arkham? And put _all_ of its 'wanted' victims into it?"

"All of them? Really?" Edward asked, pushing her aside and scanning through the list of names. Sure enough, he saw a few familiar names—including his own and Chronic's.

_**CIRQUE DE HECTICA**_

_**Brought to you by The Joker**_

_**Coming to your town soon, ladies and gentlemen...**_

_**THE GREATEST [if overly-insane] CIRCUS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! **_

"_'Cirque de Hectica'_, huh?" Edward said, tripping slightly on his words but was otherwise fine with the title. "How many names do I know? Let's see—Pamela, Freeze, Jonathan, Harvey, Waylon, Jervis, Harley, Oswald, Bane, Selina—they're _all_ in this!" he exclaimed softly, eyes shrinking. There were two other names there, but he hadn't heard of them—Synth and Nexus.

This was going to be one _hell_ of a circus!

Next to him, the time warper scratched the side of her head, thinking. "Of course _Joker_ would be putting something like this up, wouldn't he?" Chronic said to Edward with a smile, tearing the poster off the post.

"I know, right? He's got more tricks up his sleeve than anyone I know."

"But—_seriously?_ The least he could do is warn the rogues he's pulling off a circus with _us_ in it. We need time to sort our acts out, first."

"The poster said it was coming soon, so it's not like we're going to be doing it today...have you got your act sorted out yet, Miss Time Warper?" Edward asked, leaning against his cane and grinning at his friend.

Chronic finally took her eyes off the poster and stared at Edward, surprised. "What? You're _really _going through with this?"

"Of course I am!" Edward cheered. "It's not every day the rogues of this city team up to do a performance, y'know, without the Bat monitoring our every movement. And, besides, it could be _fun._ We need that in a city like this."

"Right...that depends on how you define _'fun'_," the time warper said with an eyeroll. Edward pulled the puppy-dog face at her and she groaned. "Alright! Fine, it's a..." Chronic stopped, realizing how hard the question actually was. What was her act going to be if she had only a split second to come up with one? Already there were so many ideas swimming in her mind. "...it's a disappearing act!" she finally decided.

A disappearing act. That sounded a little boring, and besides, nobody could pull it off—wait. This is Chronic the Time Warper we're talking about! She can pull off anything, and he knew it. Another child-like smile lit up the riddler's face.

"Come along, then, Miss Time Warper. We got a lot of work to do before the big day!" Edward announced and, with a spin of his cane, pointed the cane homewards before sprinting down the street with a brazen smile.

"Uh, hey—Ed! Should I take this with us?!" Chronic shouted after him, waving the poster around. Too late—he was already bounding back to the hideout. So, knowing she wasn't going to get an answer out of him till they were both out of sight from the city, she shrugged and rolled the poster up, following her friend down the streets and staying out of sight.

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**And that's it for these two for now. It was kind of short but hope you enjoyed, please review, and we'll see you in the next chapter! ;)**


	3. Let's get this show on the road!

**Chapter 2: Let's get this show on the road!**

**A/N: I'm back and I found a few ideas while I was off. **

**Enjoy. ;)**

...

_**Time: 11.59am **_  
_**Date: Saturday, October 5**_

Well, the past two weeks came with quite a bit of chaos—including a few buildings being blown up and at least five incapacitated thugs—but it was finally the first Saturday of October and the circus was [surprisingly enough] a go. Thankfully, all the acts had called Oswald Cobblepot—the manager of the circus—and they all had their petty moments of complaining about the time frame of preparation before finally agreeing to join in _Cirque de Hectica_.

Oswald and Joker, thus far, were the only main people already at the site [aside from the various thugs doing the few main jobs like setting up the bright red Big Top] where the first circus performance would be held. By the time it was twelve at noon, Joker looked up at the dark sky, noticing that there were strange waves of red, green and blue light stretching across the sky. Oswald noticed too, and tried to locate the source of the light.

"What the—" Oswald said, walking forward. After three seconds, he began to hear violin music—not the usual slow violin music that he occasionally always hears, but upbeat violin music. Strange...

"Mr. Cobblepot! I see you've found my muse of light and sound," a familiar voice said, not far from where the music and light waves were coming from.

The circus manager took his gaze off the sky to see two people standing before him.

The first person he noticed was a tall lanky man with neat brown hair and blue eyes concealed by glasses sitting on the tip of his nose. He wore a brown button-up shirt, dark grey trousers, smart black shoes and a long black overcoat. In one hand he held a suitcase, and in the other he held a charcoal grey briefcase.

The second person was a girl, about 18 years old, with a violin case secured on her back. She wore a crimson hooded cocktail dress over a black shirt and dark grey tights. She also wore dark grey, almost knee-high boots, a black leather belt with silver studs and a silver buckle, and a shiny green broach where the hood met the dress' collar. What made her look strikingly scary was her face—she had pale skin flecked with silver freckles, venomous green eyes which were surrounded by scarlet eyeshadow, and dark violet lips which contrasted to the rest of her attire. In one hand she held a violin and in the other she held a bow.

She was the one making the music, and apparently also the light waves.

Oswald raised an eyebrow, bringing out a clipboard and a pen. "And you two are...?" he asked, pointing the pen at the duo.

"Doctor Jonathan Crane, and this is my assistant Lindsay Spier," the man replied.

"But I prefer Synth," the girl said with a smile.

"Ah yes!" the ringmaster of the circus shouted as he walked up to the three. Joker smiled insanely, particularly at Jonathan who was set on burning holes into the clown's head with his glare. "I believe you and me had that little arguement before Ozzie took the phone off me," Joker said, poking the doctor in the chest.

"Joker," Oswald scolded. He turned his attention back to Jonathan and Synth. "So I take it you both want the job?"

Synth held her arms at her sides and sighed, shaking her head in faux annoyance. "We wouldn't be here for any other reason, would we?" she asked.

No reply came—unless you count Joker's laughter as a reply. "Oh, your girl's good, Jonny! We need some attitude in this circus if it's going to run."

Both Oswald and Jonathan sighed. The manager called over one of the workers. "Hey Franky! Paul! Take Doctor Crane and Miss Spier to their caravan."

The man nodded and walked over. Jonathan handed the worker the suitcase but he pulled the briefcase out of reach. Synth did the same when the other worker tried to take her violin case. "No, I've got this one!" they both insisted. Confusion spawned inside the two workers, but they shrugged it off nonetheless and led the two to their caravan.

...

At the same time, two new arrivals had snuck into the manager's office. The first person looked at the other, who grinned and nodded before lifting up what looked like a pole in this light. There was a slight zapping noise before the second person disappeared, leaving the first to their own devices.

Just then, the lights flicked on and Oswald stepped into the room. He sat down on the chair and rubbed his temples when suddenly his hat flew off his head.

"Wha—" he exclaimed in confusion and looking up to see that it was actually being held up in the air by what looked like, well, from this angle, a gold question mark. A chuckle sounded from behind the chair.

"Hey! Who are you?" Oswald ordered.

"Riddle me this," a voice said to match the chuckle. "I am never clear to see but I'm always seen, I'm the child of a riddle and a mystery. What am I?"

The manager sighed. "You're an Enigma."

A head peeked out over the top of the chair to look down on him. "That's _Mr_ E. Nigma, as a matter of fact," he said, holding the hat over Oswald's head.

Oswald stood up and shook hands with the newcomer before taking his hat back. "It's good to see you, Edward! I didn't expect you to come this early."

Edward stepped around the chair. He was quite tall, not as tall as Jonathan but nearly as tall. He had scruffy brown hair, bright blue eyes, and a brazen grin that was ever-present on his face. He wore a dark dreen shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a purple tie that matched his gloves, black trousers with a green question mark embroidered on on of the pockets and a green bolero hat with a purple stripe and black question mark.

Generally, he was dressed rather smart. The only item that contrasted was his shoes—green baseball boots with purple laces and a black question mark sewn on the sides.

Edward cringed. "Likewise. But my friend insisted that we get here early," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Oswald raised an eyebrow. "Wait, where are they, then?"

The smile appeared again. "Riddle me this: I stay in one place, however my hands are always moving. The older something is, the newer I become. What am I?"

This was a tricky one. But when Edward started mimicking a clock, things started to click into place. "The answer is time," Oswald answered.

"Pfft! And I thought nobody was going to guess that riddle," a girlish voice said, which seemed to appear from midair, along with the person who had said it. It was a 16 year old girl holding a cane with a double-sided hilt which matched her eyes—blue and orange. She had silver hair with a bold blue streak running across her fringe, and on her left eye—the orange eye—was a tattoo of a pocketwatch. She wore a dark grey overcoat rimmed with blue over a black shirt and black tights, light grey boots and, on her head, a grey beret.

Edward rolled his eyes. "This is my friend, Sarah Axlewood," he said, gesturing to the girl.

"Stage name and _prefered_ name: Chronic," the girl said. "I've been practising my act for the last two weeks, so it should be perfect now," she added with a grin.

"Oh, my dear. Better watch that attitude of yours—it'll get you into trouble with the others."

"You're worried about attitude?" Chronic asked. Then she tilted her head. "Makes you wonder who I got that off, huh?" She glanced accusingly at Edward, who smiled.

"Okay, if I can get you two to follow Al over here, he'll take you to your caravan. Then you can go and introduce yourselves to the other acts."

"But you only have five acts so far. I checked before I came in here."

"And did you manage to remember the luggage this time?" the elder asked his sidekick. She gave him a look of confusion.

"What? Did you expect me to carry it all the way here?" the time warper asked. This caused Edward to glare at her. She smirked. "I'm kidding! I left it outside. I'll see you later, Oz." And with that, the two followed the worker to their caravan.

Oswald sighed. There were only five of the acts here—Joker, Jonathan, Synth, Edward and Chronic—and already he could tell...

This was going to be one hell of a circus.

...

**A/N: I'm done! YES! I've finished the second chapter. Hope you liked! ;)**


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